a.b. stoddard. and military analyst james "spider" marks. thank you for being with us this morning. a.b., let's talk about the political picture right you now. people are just waking up. it happened less than 12 hours ago. members of congress are weighing in. is it your impression there is a consensus thus far in the u.s., basically, and that both sides of the aisle and congress think this was the right move? >> i think there is a bipartisan consensus this was a reversal for president trump as he campaigned as interventionist, but acted swiftly in he narrowed it not as attack on the country to take out the president bashar al assad, but to speak directly to the use of chemical weapons in violation of international norms. i think that so far has been

a.b. stoddard, and match flap is a contributor with "the hill." byron, your thoughts on this, this ratcheting up attention that we have seen? >> it appears that there is saber rattling, but it also appears that they keep muscling up. i think you are absolutely right about, this will heighten speculation that the united states sabotage this in some way if it was a failure that the united states had something to do with that failure. clearly after this happened a week ago, trump administration officials were asked about it, they kind of grinned and said, we can't talk about it. no one confirmed it, but they can give you the impression that they were directing you away from that conclusion anyway. clearly it is going to bring much more speculation that the united states is playing an active role in sabotaging this. >> bret: a.b., here is the secretary of state, yesterday, something he reiterated today.

a.b. stoddard with the breaking news.eciate it. >> thank you. >> shepard: i just learned that president trump has spoken about syria as he headed on air force one down to floor. john roberts is already in palm beach. what did he say, john? >> good afternoon to you. the president came back to the press cabin in the rear right side of air force one to talk about a number of different things. he wanted to talk about the summit he's having with xi jinping, which is supposed to be the theme of this next 24 hours. it's clear that what is going on with syria and the potential there is overshadowing that. a routine leader summit between the united states and china is turning into something else all together. the president talking to the press about syria. he was asking whether bashar al-assad should go. this is on camera. we don't have the type. so i'll read the transcript. the president said what assad did is terrible. what happened in syria is one of the truly egregious crimes. and when asked if the president was going to take

a.b. stoddard and david gregory and joining us is phil mudd.o interesting, phil, to hear from cia director mike pompeo there. saying how pernicious that julian assange after president trump said i love wikileaks. look at the exciting information from wikileaks. it was about hillary clinton during the campaign. so what do you think about wikileaks and do you think they will be able to make the case that the first amendment doesn't apply here for julian assange's protection? >> this will be portrayed as a political decision. the critical question we were talking about 30 seconds ago is if the case changed. instead of revealing information, downtoid the justi department and others believe assange was moving edward snowden. alisyn, i think the horse is out of the barn on this one. in the past, leaks used to be somebody call the new york times or cnn. now a new age of transparency where a35-year-old says i don't believe in government. i'll dump data on a web site and do it anonymously and reveal tens of thousands of documents. i think this is the wa

a.b. stoddard how it's done. do you see that reported legitimately and others in the conservative issue. >> i do think leaking is an issue. leaking is a problem no matter who the administration is, there's a code of conduct and they aren't supposed to be leaking stuff. wide dissemination of leaks is really the problem here. but what people are doing we've been talking about, confusing and conflating these issues. people at home interested in the truth really need to learn the difference between incidental collection and wiretapping. they are not the same thing. unmasking is not wiretapping. unmasking is not leaking. so it allows trump supporters and allies to build this narrative there was this wild surveillance of trump and his associates. there were conversations between fisa targets and other people foreigners or trump associates themselves during which names of trump campaign officials, et cetera, family members, were caught up in this. it's the wide dissemination that is a problem, potentially a crime. susan

a.b. stoddard is here from realclearpolitics.com. appearance according to them is that the white house is not cooperating. what does that do? >> well, the documents that the oversight chairman and ranking member reviewed today came from the pentagon and their military documents led them to believe that nothing in this process of michael flynn, renewing his security clearance or getting one or becoming national security adviser provided the necessary documentation that he had actually received these payments and had this activity with russians or even with turkey. the problem is that if there is that documentation and that could exonerate flynn, then the white house, we would think, would provide it. so in their response saying we answered these questions, ridiculous to ask, plus it was during the transition, nobody has those records, they're building more smoke in an already smokey situation looking like they're stone walling. they should come as clean as they can. there's already complaints from democrats. first on the house side, n

a.b. stoddard. did the president have the authorization not officially but sort of the right to do this without congress? >> well, he did it i mean you know there may be a war powers debate and authorization debate in the days to come. we'll see if somebody initiates that. the president's language was specifically tailored to address that that this is in the interest to have united states. th it is a violation of international law to use chemical weapons and the president is saying that the united states will take the lead in making sure these weapons are not used with impunity. the refugee issue, the targeting of civilians which as christiane was just saying the hundreds of thousands by the assad regime, it's also creating a historic refugee problem in the region which is something trump has opposed, he wants to keep the refugees out and leads to the question is he going to allow more syrian refugees in? because this becomes a serious situation because you have millions of refugees coursing through

a.b. stoddard and mark preston. a.b., how is this okay? >> there's nothing okay about this.publicans on capitol hill should be ashamed of themselves. long before this blog post. because the president never separated himself from his businesses. he's profiting off the presidency. >> mar-a-lago initiation rate has gone to $100,000. >> has doubled. they know they have access. two former presidents from colombia. lots can happen there. forget it's not a secure environment, adequately secured. but he is at a trump branded property every single weekend. it is flagrant. it's not even subtle. his daughter got three chinese trademarks. trump himself after acknowledging the one china policy got three chinese trademarks. this is not even subtle. they are profiting off the presiden presidency. and the worst part about it, the republicans have done nothing. >> not just cloak and daggers. put up the calendar for trump branded policies by trump. see the circles, that's where he goes. we usually talk about the security money, but the conflict is apparent. mark preston, you have the best ske

a.b. stoddard, mollie hemingway.enior editor at "the federalist" and syndicated columnist charles krauthammer. mollie, should we be surprised to find susan rice at the center of the story? >> ever since devin nunes talked about the unmasking, i would assumed it would be lower level. this is not a minor flunky. already a pretty serious allegation, now something much bigger. >> it's important to remind their viewers, as i often do, i did two weeks ago, that although people want to confuse the two. unmasking is not leaking. unmasking is not wiretapping. it is not surveillance and while devin nunes lied about this, president trump lied about it, susan rice lied about it. this revelation could be anything from a scandal to a crime. should be a separate investigation. who leaked it? was the unmasking legal? that's different from an allegation that president obama ordered wiretapping. it's not actually a story. it's about two separate things and they may be two separate wrongs. unmasking is not wiretapping and not leaking.

a.b. stoddard. david gregory. how is it a win for the gop in a district they held since 1979 and have an upstart get almost 50% of the vote? >> i don't think it is a resounding win. they come away at least. i think, you know, this is a strong showing for a democratic candidate in a really conservative red district. but despite that strong showing, i think there are some reasons to temper the enthusiasm. i think there are limits to the anti-trump progressive democratic wing of the party as you look ahead to the mid term race. i think they have to find a way to coalesce around the message other than anti-trump. you don't have to particularly be for something, but go back over the role of government and health care. i don't think it can be just anti-trump. in a lot of districts, tried and true republicans will come home. what made it close here, of course, these are more college educated republicans. more might rtt romney republica than donald trump. >> david, the guy got almost 50% of the vote and came out as a new

a.b. stoddard, and charles hurt, opinion editor for the washington times and syndicated columnist charleser. 323, you listened to brady. he seems pretty optimistic parade they've been working on it for a while. it's hurting the republican cats when it comes to the issues the specifics on tax reform. >> give them credit for working on it. there is unity among all republicans, the team at the white house and everyone on capitol hill about wanting this. this is our greatest item on their wish list and they wanted for generations. but that said, there are the divisions that remain that prevented a health care reform bill from passing. those divisions will rear their head next week when they need to pass the spending bill and the government funding runs out next friday. april 28. they need to come together. when the sacred cows are delineated, everyone can have hearings and say it sounds like a good proposal but when the lab ring starts and people come in and say i'm with you. i want to support it but you can't take this one thing away. that's going to happen. it's going to be where the rubber

a.b. stoddard and white house reporter for the journal eli stokos. great to have you on, eli. trump raises his hand. we got it done. glad i was involved. how do you grab victory with the jaws of defeat with the nobody democrat? >> this is a ruby red republican district in georgia. democrats are excited to get out and vote. you expect that. given the trump presidency and all of the enthusiasm he has engendered among opponents. this is also a soft under belly of the republican party of the trump coalition. this is a district that is not strong for him. he relies on working class whites. it is a district where republicans make hay. democrats still are vulnerable from the attack from president trump and others in the district. they are liberal. they will raise taxes. they will increase regulation. it will be total liberal government. there are still a lot of republicans out there who may be soft on trump, but they don't want to put a democrat in there. >> a.b., explain how this is a referendum on president trump when this district was won by one point during the presidential elect

a.b. stoddard now. a lot of talk, no movement. >> yes, this is the trump administration using harsh language. it's a reversal from trump in his campaign rhetoric a year ago. they put the russians on the spot. they're saying we can't work with you until you abandon assad. i don't think the russians are showing any interest in doing that. even though they have said once at the time of the air strikes about ten days ago, their support for him wasn't unequivocal. they're not showing in their messages to the united states, putin's comments about the relationship with trump, everything they're saying, the descriptions of the chemical attacks, they're not giving any indication that they're interested in abandoning their status in syria. >> shepard: but to suggest anything about this fight has changed would be completely wrong. the wholesale murder of the people of assad continues on a daily, hourly basis. it's not as if anything has changed on the ground. what happens the next time there's pictures of dead bab

a.b. stoddard, alex burns, thank you so much. >>> it could be the egg heard around the world, or eggs, i suppose easter egg roll. live pictures. this is the first one for the trump family. they got a late start in planning, so can they pull this off? we're live. it delivers a whole mouth clean with a less intense taste. zero alcohol™. so it has the bad breath germ-killing power of this... [rock music] with the lighter feel... of this. [classical music] for a whole mouth clean with a less intense taste... ahhh. try listerine® zero alcohol™. also try listerine® pocketpaks for fresh breath on the go. so i use excedrin.ments from my life. it starts to relieve migraine pain in just 30 minutes. and it works on my symptoms, too. now moments lost to migraines are moments gained with excedrin. [heartbeat] >>> all right, let's roll! you're looking at live pictures from the south lawn of the white house. this is the trump administration's first easter egg roll. it is under way, been so for several hours. a giant annual social event in washington every year, but this year things could be a little less giant

a.b. stoddard here. charlie gasparino here. what do you make of this there is no more subterfuge or drama behind it than what blake outlined? still bannon is a lightning rod for critics. i wonder if think make him any less so, what do you think? >> it was interesting he was removedç permanently they saidn their statement but still ad loud to attend the meetings, so in the end he will have his eyes and ears in there. it is true actually that he was trying to monitor flynn. that was reported in "the new york times." clearly from sources close to bannon, before flynn was even fired or we were even wrapped up into that whole story about him not informing the vice president of his conversations with russian ambassador. so there was tension between bannon and flynn before that. but, it was highly unusual as blake pointed out, that a political appointee would be in that group on the principals committee, attending those meetings reserved for top national security officials and defense officials. mcmaster as you know was on active dut

a.b. stoddard. i don't know this is the way to go. i thought aime's comments interesting.esident biden had a chance to win. sanders people think they could win. >> there is definitely no leader in this party. you could say tom perez heads up the democratic national committee. most democrats don't know who he is. they don't know who he is a year from now. i don't think he will be consequential. a placeholder. bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, they're both around the same age. known as unfriendly to banks. they fire up liberals but they're not realistic candidate for 2020 to go up against donald trump then you think who is? hillary clinton is a failed candidate. she should not be the big face of the party going forward. if warren and sanders help them with fund-raising and excite young people and do online motivating, at kind of thing that is fine. they are dependent on good candidates. if trump continues to lose the country, lose independents, ultimately lose republicans because he can't full his promises by 2018, they are p.e.t. well-positioned. you but they have to hav